A Carnival Ride
by PLLHalebSpoby
Summary: For the AU Spoby Week. Spencer and her friends are out for a night on the town when they are approached by the brazen, but attractive, Toby Cavanaugh. What follows is a chance encounter that blossoms into a romance set for the ages.


Their lives were worlds apart in every possible way. She, the daughter of a wealthy welder. He, the son of a writer at the town newspaper. Their homes were on the other side of the town, their lives on two different atmospheres.

Somehow these two crossed paths.

At a county fair.

He saw her laughing with her friends, throwing popcorn teasingly at them, not a care in the world, as they prepared to board the ferris wheel.

"Hi," he said, deciding to brazenly take his chances, and introduce himself like the proper gentlemen he was.

She arched her head to side, as if trying to figure out who he was, and why he was talking to her. Her friends were more abrupt about it, he could see them trading glances with each other.

"Hi," she giggled, shaking her head in disbelief. "I'm sorry, but who are you?"

"Yeah," her friend said, a blond. "You're sort of interrupting girls night."

"I'm terribly sorry," he said with a barely suppressed smirk. "I would just like the opportunity to introduce myself to your friend, here."

The brunette looked taken aback as he held out his hand to her, determined to impress her tonight. "I'm Toby Cavanaugh."

He always found that his smile was his bargaining chip, especially when he anchored it to the side in a way that most women found adorable.

It worked. She was trying to hide it, but he could see that her icy interior was messing.

"I'm Spencer Hastings."

"Spencer," he repeated, the name sounded right. "I wasn't aware that the name had become a unisex one."

It was a weak joke, but the best he could come up with.

"And what does Toby stand for? _Tobias_?"

Ouch. She knew how to hit below the belt, apparently.

"Well," her blond friend said, "we have a ferris wheel to catch up to."

"Wait," he said, stepping in front of Spencer brazenly. "Say you'll go out with me."

"_What_?"

"Say you'll go out with me," he repeated.

"No," she said, squaring her shoulders stubbornly.

"No? Why not?"

"Because I don't know you," she said, turning and walking around him.

He hung back, watching as she and her friends boarded the dangerous contraption. It was frustrating, he had never met a woman who could be so infuriatingly stubborn, but insanely charming and intelligent.

Acting on a suicidal impulse, he stepped closer to the ferris wheel, before dangerously grabbing onto the protective bar in front. Spencer and her friend both recoiled, looking at each other in incredulity.

"What are you _doing_?" Spencer shrieked, "get off before you kill yourself!"

"That won't happen," he assured her, as he hung on to the bar, dangling hundreds of feet from the ground. "Now, I know that you said that you didn't know me, but that's not entirely true. We met, we exchanged names, I think that makes us acquaintances at least."

Spencer shook her head in irritation. "Just get off the rail, Toby."

"Say you'll go out with me."

"You're insane."

Below them, people had quickly noticed the commotion, and were quickly pointing upward at the sight before them.

"Say it, or I'll drop down right now."

"No!"

Clenching his teeth in concentration, he removed one hand from the bar. The gasps and protests from the people below, were instantaneous.

"Just go out with him!" her friend said, looking sick.

"Say it," Toby goaded her.

"Fine, I will go out with you."

Without warning, she reached foreword and undid his pants, causing them to fall around his ankles. "You didn't just do that," he murmured, his cheeks flushing.

Swinging himself onto their seat, he pulled his pants back up, looping an arm around her shoulders. The act of doing that would be scandalous, but he didn't care so much about appearances, as winning this girl's heart.

"See how easy that could have been?"

She huffed in response, looking away.

Despite their initial, rocky meeting, the two grew to become inseparable. It was completely illogical, she was from the city, he a country boy at heart, but there was something magical about them.

Some may have called it a summer romance, and maybe it was, but there was something undeniable about these two.

Her family may have protested, calling him "trash" but they presented a united front against all of them, and defied the wishes of not only her parents, but the entire town around them.

After all, when you're in love, the approval of loved ones, is only half the battle.

* * *

**In case you don't know, this is based off the carnival scene from "The Notebook" which is one of my all time favorite "romantic" movies. **


End file.
